According to the New Group, "An Early History of Fire is set in a small Midwestern town at the tipping point of the early 1960s. A few years out of high school, Danny finds his days defined by friendship and loyalty – but a confusing new world encroaches in the form of Karen, back from college in the East, alluring and unsettling because of all she has learned. Awhirl in longing and eyeing a chance for radical change, Danny struggles against the grip of his immigrant father, who clings to his only son while mourning a vanished world of lost prestige."

The creative team includes Neil Pate (set design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), Theresa Squire (costume design), Ken Travis (sound design), Doug Paulson (dialect coach) and David Anzuelo (fight director). Tony-winning playwright David Rabe's plays include The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Sticks and Bones, The Orphan, In the Boom Boom Room, Streamers, Hurlyburly, Those the River Keeps, A Question of Mercy, The Dog Problem and The Black Monk.